Hi, Does anyone know if there is any parachuting courses or opportunities available for cadets, in NI?
There are so few opportunities available full stop, the chances of there being NI-based opportunities are virtually none, sorry.
Interested to see if there’s any answer to this as it’s something I’d love to do. Even it’s through a civilian club that’s approved by HQ 22 group (I think that’s the wording, I’ll try to find the screenshot I took of it)
Wonder if there is a list anywhere. Are 22Gp more risk averse than 2FTS?
Yes, here:
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I don’t know why, I was really hoping to be pleasantly surprised.
You can go to the Army Parachute Centre at Netheravon. It’s about £160 to do a static line jump. An IBN came out a few years ago.
No, you can’t… Because that’s not the joint service centre. It’s the civilian club.
It’s my understanding that SNI region do actually have two civilian clubs assured by 22 Gp as they asked ages ago due to the travel distances required to the Joint Centres.
I’ve still heard nothing on my assurance request for two sites in W&W.
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We have used it and I know others who have as well. In the process of organising another trip.
Just because you have in the past doesn’t mean it’s correct now. If it gets approved I would be very surprised as the Corps position was made clear at the last national AT panel.
See this LASER safety notice:
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t agree with the stance we are taking - but that is currently the position with respect to parachuting. Depending on your region, RHQ may have already submitted a business case for assurance of civilian sites within your region.
How long that takes is down to the RAF and thus anyone’s guess.
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I’m guessing you’re part of the London Wing group that used it fairly recently? If so, no clue how you got it approved as at the time of the activity, it wasn’t allowed. But that’s why the above linked safety notice came out.
No we’re not. We went just before lockdown, but due to the weather the cadets couldn’t jump. I’ve just been in contact with the centre to rearrange. This information hasn’t been promulgated to our region, so I was not aware of the change - which leaves my cadets £160 out of pocket 
If you’ve been before - and presumably had it approved before - I say keep going until you’re explicitly told you’re not allowed.
After all, this isn’t an official communication channel 
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But the safety notice linked to by Redowling is.
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Well… so far it’s not looking good…
My advice would be to discuss this with your chain of command to try and come to a resolution. This will depend on the DDH I expect; given the activity was embarked upon in good faith prior to the restriction being implemented then it may be that an exception is made to prevent cadets being out of pocket. Alternatively it may transpire that the DDH says wait until formal assurance of the APA is completed - that is an unbounded timescale unfortunately which doesn’t help your or your cadets.
It is being pushed; I raised it at the AT panel and it is on the radar but I suspect fairly low priority given the niche nature of the activity.
I have also asked if the fact that the ACF have assured the APA (as stated in their AT manual) can be read across to the RAFAC. No answer as yet.
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Now that would be sensible
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That would be waaaaaaay toooooooooooo sensible for the RAF.
The bigger question is why the cadets forces from the AT JSP. Do we follow the MoD rules or not?
I try to be pragmatic. I am often foiled.
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Specific JSP419 rules - we don’t follow. The military JSAT qualification system diverges significantly from our NGB based system so we have been written out of JSP419 as it doesn’t really make sense. I’ll find the exact wording when I get a second.